about time
Greetings all!
Been lurking around the forum for quite some time, but never felt compelled to post. Hope no one minds if I sound off on this topic.
There's been a large movement on the part of the business community to finally get something done with regards to the prostitution issue in Sosua and Cabarete.
Basically, it comes down to deciding what sort of a tourist destination we want for Sosua and then taking the steps necessary to move in that direction. Aside from the few bars who live off prostitution, in whose interest is it to have such an open, flagrant prostitution business as recently existed in Sosua?
The ai's do care, because whatever affects the destination affects us. Aside from the moral obligation a business has to confront problems affecting our community, if my guests can't walk the streets without being accosted (or approached, if you prefer) by prostitutes, they won't walk the streets. Restaurants and pubs complain that ai is killing the town, but the truth is quite simple: our guests eat and drink for free at my resort -- it's an expense for me to have them consume on-site. I would therefore much prefer they go elsewhere to dine, drink and party. But if all they see on their way to a restaurant or bar is prostitution, what image will they take back home with them?
More importantly, the reputation that Sosua has (and Cabarete will have if they're not careful) is extremely damaging to the economy. It cheapens the destination, therefore driving down prices and occupancy. There was a time when there were many, many more hotels in town than there are now, and all of them full to the rafters. You couldn't throw a rock in this town without hitting a nightclub, and they were all rocking. Then the prostitution took over. Fine, one can argue that prostitution was not the only reason the town slowed down, but no one can argue that it wasn't a contributing factor.
Sex tourism is a miniscule part of the whole tourism market, but where sex tourism is dominent (or even prevalent), other sorts of tourism die. A simple example: Two people visit a destination. One likes prostitution, one doesn't. When they get home, the one who doesn't go in for open prostitution tells all his friends not to come, as it's so infested with it. The one who likes this sort of prostitution goes home and tells all his friends to go for the cheap prostitution heaven. What happens after a few years of this?
It is also well-known that sex tourism is an extremely cheap tourism (even relatively speaking). Why would we cater to that when we can have a much more lucritive and abundant market?
Ask around the business community about what prostitution has done and is doing to the town, and what benefits we would enjoy if we could control and reduce it. Ask a real estate agent what it would do for the value of properties and businesses. Ask a hotelier (one who doesn't allow prostitutes, of course) or a restauranteur. Or anyone who deals with tourism for that matter.
Better yet, as the parents of the kids who go to school at the Hess academy on Pedro Clisante what they think of that street and what's going on just steps from where their children go to school.
No one is saying that prostitution can be eliminated, but if we don't get serious about controlling it, we won't have much of a town left. And the prostitutes? They'll just move on to Cabarete, or Bayahibe, or Samana or wherever.
I understand that occasionally someone who isn't a prostitute might get picked up in a 'redada'. That's unfortunate and I can understand their frustration. But even the most indignant innocent person has to admit that better a very few get inconvenienced than that we allow the situation to continue unchecked. I dare say that losing one's job because there isn't enough tourism (or enough of the right kind of tourism) to sustain your wage would be the much larger inconvenience, and that inconvenience has been much more widespread these last years. How much better off would the town of Sosua be today had the authorities (not just the police) gotten serious years ago with the prostitution problem?
In every tourist destination in the world there exists prostitution. The difference is that most destinations control the problem. Go to Amsterdam, famous for the redlight district -- you can walk the streets two blocks away without being accosted. Even Bankok is cracking down on the sex trade these past five years. Are we to be the only ones in the world to allow working girls to walk the street simply because we don't want our police to ruffle feathers?
Apologies if I've gone on, but it's not as simple as some people would like to think -- that the police are just out to make a few thousand pesos. The police, finally, are doing their part (or at least part of their part) to confront a problem with serious social and economic ramifications. I for one support their recent efforts, distasteful as many might find them, and hope this is indicative of a change in the thinking of those in decision-making positions.